FIFTY-ONE
My heart was racing as Peter Danton turned and went back inside the bunker. He pulled the door after him, and it closed as tightly as if it was the breach door on a submarine.
I slid off the hay bale and ran to the great steel handle, twice the size of a steering wheel. I turned and pulled at it, but nothing moved.
Outside the shed, I heard several trucks speeding across the gravel and stopping just in front. It sounded as though there were three different voices, as the men exchanged comments with each other.
“I think she’s got light hair,” the first one said. “I could see it on the tape when they drove in. Danton wants you to check the horse barns. Maybe she’s out walking over to the animals.”
“How about the shed?” another asked, as I flattened myself against the wall, behind the tallest pile of bales.
“That’s where Mr. Danton was standing when he called me. Fan out and look for her. No need to be unpleasant. Just bring her back to this blue car. They’ll be leaving soon.”
“Who’s watching the surveillance screens?” the second guy wanted to know.
“There’s only the three of us working today. One of you will be back on that duty after you find the girl.”
I was relieved that nothing unpleasant was in store for me, and also to know that the security team was understaffed. But I didn’t feel comfortable enough to identify myself to them as long as Mike was on the other side of a locked door. And I didn’t want Mercer to meet any resistance if he drove in before we were able to get out.
I exhaled when I heard the workmen leave. But now all I could focus on was that two of the men who meant the most to me in the world-Luc and Mike-were locked in the underground storage facility and had no reason to know that Peter Danton was unhappy to have Mike there.
I didn’t want to be “found” by the searchers, so I squeezed myself farther back between two tall stacks of hay bales.
There must have been a legitimate purpose for the meeting Danton had arranged, I tried to convince myself. Both Jim Mulroy and Josh Hanson had expressed their interest in investing in Lutèce. Had Luc been lured here to see the vault, and then been obligated to sit down with the group to accept their offer to expand his team?
And what did he know about Gineva Imports? Had Gina Varona not been invited to this impromptu get-together, or was she simply unable to make it on short notice?
I saw the giant wheel on the steel door begin to spin only minutes after Danton had gone back inside. Maybe the discussion had been aborted because of Mike’s presence, and the foursome was coming out. But it was Peter Danton, this time accompanied by Josh Hanson.
Danton walked to the opening of the shed and must have seen his workers scrambling around, inside and out of the other barns.
He held the walkie-talkie to his mouth with his good hand.
“Haven’t you found her yet?” he demanded.
I couldn’t hear the answer.
“Just get her back to her car. I’ll have the detective out to her shortly. He’s just poking around before he leaves.”
I was frozen in place.
Peter Danton turned and started talking to Josh Hanson. “It’s time to break up our meeting. I want to get Chapman out of here before he does any more snooping. Go back in and tell Luc you’ve got to hurry back to your kid’s soccer game. Understood? We’ll deal with your cut of the business another time.”
“That’s fine.”
“Get rid of the detective and Luc, so we can move the stuff out of here if we need to. Worst he can do is come back in a couple of days looking for it, if he’s half as smart as he thinks he is. I’ll rejoin you in a few minutes. Just keep Chapman away from that bin behind the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.”
“Will do.”
Josh Hanson went back through the open steel door, and Peter Danton took one more look outside the shed.
He pressed the walkie-talkie to find his security head. “Where is everybody?”
The machine crackled back at him.
“If the detective’s traveling companion wasn’t in any of the barns, then check the closest trails,” he said. “She can’t be that far away.”
“Say that again? You’ve just gone back to watch the surveillance tape a second time?” Danton held the device to his ear. “You’re telling me she came into this little building with the detective but never left?”
Danton turned and started to look around the small shed. “No, no. You go out with the other men and keep looking. I’m doing fine right here.”
Peter Danton put the walkie-talkie in his rear pants pocket, then walked to the door of the vault. He pushed it closed and locked it, with four men still inside, to begin his search for me.
FIFTY-TWO
“Alexandra Cooper.” Peter Danton repeated my name aloud, over and over. Each time he said it, he lifted a bale of hay from one of the taller piles and threw it onto a smaller one.
With three or four more tosses, I would be completely exposed.
“I’m going to find you in a moment or two, Alex, and then you and I are going to join the party.”
He lifted another block and bounced it off a nearby pile.
“You could scream, of course, but then the only people who might hear you are the men who work for me. The vault is completely soundproofed. Nobody wanted to hear those bombs exploding around them in the good old days,” he said. “And the men who work for me don’t have a reputation for being the friendliest sort.”
I heard another bale land on the floor.
“That’s what I get for hiring ex-cons to do my security. They’re a little rough around the edges-all the edges-but then again, they don’t scare easily out here in the boondocks, which so many people do. Well, there you are!”
I was crouched in a corner of the shed, and now my cover was completely gone.
“You can come to me, Alex, or I’ll just get over to you and drag you out. It might take a minute or two longer, but I’ll get there.”
I stood up. I stepped on the pile of hay between me and Peter Danton. He reached out to grab my arm and pull me down beside him.
“Sorry. I was up most of the night. I just fell asleep back here.” I figured I looked dazed enough to make believe I hadn’t heard any of the conversation.
“I would have thought you’d be the type to enjoy some fresh air,” he said, “which would have been much healthier for you. But now I think it’s time for a rendezvous with your friends in the vault.”
I looked out the door of the small shed and thought about making a run for my car. I’d prefer anything to being entombed in a bomb shelter. Mike had a gun and knew how to use it, though the idea of leaving him and Luc trapped behind the steel door terrified me.
“If you want me to take off, I’ll just get in the car and go,” I said.
“A little late for that plan, don’t you think? And don’t look so longingly at all that open land out there. My foreman is a great hunter. Unfortunately, he once mistook his wife for a deer, I guess. Did twelve years for it and I’d say he’s completely rehabilitated.”
I was backed against the hay bales when Danton grabbed my right arm, above my elbow, with his good hand. “Just listen to what I say and stay calm,” he said. “You’re walking with me.”
Peter Danton led me toward the steel door, the entrance to the vault. I looked back over my shoulder, hoping against hope that Mercer would be arriving any minute. But there was no sign of anyone approaching the graveled parking lot.
“I’ve got the lives of your dear friends in my hands, Alex, and Luc tells me you’re a very emotional girl. High-strung is what he called you.”
There would be time for me to argue with Luc about that one later on.
“You’d be wiser to control yourself once we see the others. Maybe we can sort this out and get you on your way.”